• S J Howell, J P Thompson, A F Nimmo, C Snowden, N D Edwards, J Carlisle, M-S Suleiman, and A Baumbach.
• Academic Unit of Anaesthesia, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds LS1 3EX, UK. s.howell@leeds.ac.uk
• Br J Anaesth. 2006 Mar 1; 96 (3): 303-9.

BackgroundIn 2000 the European Society of Cardiology and the American College of Cardiology published a consensus document revising the definition of myocardial infarction. The usefulness of this revised definition has been challenged. It has been suggested that, rather than any release of cardiac troponin being potentially diagnostic of myocardial infarction, a diagnostic threshold consistent with significant myocardial injury should be defined.MethodsWe studied 65 patients undergoing elective major vascular surgery to examine the relationship between the magnitude of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and creatine kinase MB fraction (CK-MB) release and clinical signs or symptoms of myocardial injury. cTnI and CK-MB concentrations were measured preoperatively and on the first 4 postoperative days using the ACCESS assay (Beckmann). Patients were considered to have suffered a perioperative myocardial infarction if they had either symptoms or ECG changes consistent with this diagnosis, together with cTnI release.ResultsPeak postoperative cTnI concentrations above the lower detection limit of the ACCESS assay (0.06 microg litre(-1)) occurred in 26 patients. Eight of these patients displayed symptoms or ECG changes consistent with myocardial injury. A cTnI level greater than 0.68 microg litre(-1) was found to be consistent with the clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction. The optimal cut-off for the diagnosis of MI using CK-MB was 40.4 microg litre(-1).ConclusionsThese data suggest that further studies are required to define the optimal cardiac troponin diagnostic threshold for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction in the non-cardiac surgery population.

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